Customer Reviews

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (A Martin Beck Police Mystery) [Library Binding]

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I met a man who wasn't there.

Summer vacation season is in full swing and Inspector Martin Beck has just arrived in an isolated summer cottage on an island off the Swedish coast. The very next morning a neighbor rows out to advise him that he is wanted on the telephone. He is needed back in Stockholm for a meeting with the Police Chief and the Swedish Foreign office. Beck grudgingly returns for the meeting and is asked to travel to Budapest, Hungary to find a missing journalist. The journalist, Alf Matsson, has gone missing and the tabloid newspaper he works for has pressured the Foreign Office to search for the report. Beck has been asked to `volunteer' for the task. Despite, or perhaps because of, his wife's displeasure (their marriage is not in the best condition) at his departure, Beck accepts the assignment. In short order he is provided with a full set of travel documents, a brief dossier on Matsson, and a ticket for Budapest. The only thing Beck lacks is the first clue as to how to locate Matsson.

As the story progresses we see Beck put together bits and pieces of information as he wanders, seemingly aimlessly, through the picturesque streets of Budapest. Beck is traveling purely as a civilian and soon attracts the attention of the Budapest police force, in particular a detective who may or may not be an ally of Beck. Beck also attracts the attention of what may be either Budapest's underworld or representatives of the Hungarian security forces. For all intents and purposes Beck is a stranger in a strange land.

As with all the other Martin Beck mysteries in this ten-book series (this is the third in the series), "The Man Who Went Up in Smoke" is rich with character-driven narrative. Beck's character and his relationships with his colleagues and his wife are fleshed out as Beck plods along trying to unravel the mystery surrounding Matsson's disappearance. The authors, the husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, do a nice job of revealing details in a measured pace along the way. The plot and narrative do fall squarely within the usual police procedural `formula' but that does nothing to take away from the enjoyment of reading the book. Although the reader may find the ending a bit predictable (I didn't) the real enjoyment of the series involves the development of Beck's character. As with many good detective series (Simenon's Maigret comes to mind here) the personality of Beck takes pride of place. He is far from being a super hero, is no Sherlock Holmes (who is?), smokes too much, doesn't eat right, and has some troubles at home. He is appealing because of these flaws not despite them and his dogged determination and his personal involvement in the cases he handles drags the reader right into the story. He works at his job and doesn't and cannot rely on flashes of genius to solve a crime.

The Beck series has been an entertaining one. I recommend starting with the first book in the series (Roseanna) and working your way in chronological order. My only fault with the publisher, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (a division of Random House) is that they do not identify the order of books in the series. Despite that minor quibble any reader who enjoys Simenon, Eric Ambler, or Boris Akunin will enjoy the Martin Beck detective mysteries. Recommended. L. Fleisig.

It is hard to believe that The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) was written in the mid-60's and published in English in 1969. Swjowall & Wahloo were a husband & wife writing team (perhaps this is were Nicci French got their aspiration from) who have written a series of police thrillers and this one is the second in the "Martin Beck" series.

I loved this timeless gem that so masterfully portrays Swedish Detective Inspector Beck in his pursuit of uncovering the disappearance of a journalist in Budapest. Were it not for the obvious absence of any reference to technology & mobile phones one would think that the story was only written yesterday. Swjowall & Wahloo are masters in examining human nature and their plot, both in terms of subject and structure, is flawless.

If you like timeless police thrillers, this is well worth a read.

Christine Maingard, Author of 'Think Less Be More:Mental Detox for Everyone'

This, the second Martin Beck mystery, is somewhat atypical. The inspector is not operating in Sweden but in Budapest, where a Swedish journalist named Alf Matsson has disappeared. Beck's "hopeless meaningless assignment" is to find Matsson - with no official status and no staff support.

It's the Iron Curtain era, besides, and the case may be politically sensitive. So Beck is forbidden to speak with the local police.

Clueless and directionless, Beck wanders around admiring the Danube and feasting on Hungarian food at a tourist's pace, even though he's been told to find his man in a week. But he does unearth a few suggestive details. Eventually his very presence starts stirring things up.

As Val McDermid points out in her insightful introduction, the plotting of the Martin Beck mysteries is superb. With this book, you think you're getting one kind of story, and it turns into something quite different.

Before Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö became crime writers, they were journalists, and here they paint a fascinating picture of a rowdy set of hard-working, hard-drinking reporters and feature writers. The missing journalist emerges as a particularly nasty character. Beck finds himself feeling strangely indifferent to Matsson's fate as he moves closer to finding him.

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke was first published in 1966. Martin Beck is already middle-aged and seems to like his job better than his family. The obsessive depressive Swedish detective we meet again and again in today's Scandinavian crime fiction can be traced back to Martin Beck.

I loved the casual realism of this book, the spare prose, the quirky humor and the unpredictable meanderings of the plot. There's a subtlety of approach that reminds me of Simenon. I plan to read the whole series in order.

It had been decades since I'd read a Martin Beck roman policier from the Swedish team of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö - so long that I can't remember which ones I might have read. But on a friend's recommendation I went back to Beck in a 1969 mystery "The Man Who Went Up In Smoke." While reputedly not their best effort, it was good enough for me to want to read more.

In it Detective Beck interrupts his summer vacation to travel from Stockholm to Budapest to investigate the seeming disappearance there of a Swedish journalist. While the plot is not that intriguing, the policemen are -- Swedes and Hungarians alike. They share a stocism, a sardonic Weltanschauung, and unresolved marital problems. As a result, they come off as human beings at work instead of formulaic heroic crime-fighters.

As when Beck's colleague Kollberg is receiving an oral report on the apprehension of two suspects from an unimaginative provinical Swedish cop, Backlund, who states that they "`were taken to police headquarters...by Patrolmen Kristiansson and Kvant. Both men were under the influence of alcohol.'"

"`Kristiansson and Kvant?'"

"Backlund gave Kolberg a look of reproach and went on..."

Subtle humor, Swedish humor perhaps, which peppers the gritty novel at unexpected moments.

But most alluring is the Cold War-era view of Europe, the deliberate pacing, and the crisp prose as translated by Joan Tate. The result is soothing, reminding me of Simenon's Maigret novels. Like Maigret, Beck drinks a lot. Also like Maigret, he has a long-suffering wife -- though Beck's does not suffer silently as does Madame Maigret.

From 1965 to 1975 Sjöwall and Wahlöö published 10 Martin Beck mysteries, the most noted being "The Laughing Policeman," made into a 1973 movie, set in San Francisco in lieu of the novel's Stockholm, with Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern.

I was first introduced to the work of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo back in the 1980s when I was assigned to read "The Laughing Policeman" as part of a detective fiction college course. Since then, I have looked for their books but with no success. Just recently, I saw that the first two books in their ten book series were republished by Vintage Crime, so I have started reading the series from the beginning. The first book is called "Roseanna," and this book, "The Man Who Went Up in Smoke" is the second. So far, this is my favorite (not counting "The Laughing Policeman").

The mystery has many twists and turns. Martin Beck, the protagonist in all ten books, is taken away from his vacation and sent to Hungary to investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist, who seems to have "went up in smoke." At first, Beck is at a loss as to what really happened, though he does interview people who may have seen him. But eventually, the picture becomes clearer and by the end Beck solves the case. What I liked about it is that the story comes across as realistic, and the investigation is centered on how a real police investigation would be conducted. The solution is surprising yet satisfying, and is completely different from their first book "Roseanna."

This is an excellent series, and I can hardly wait for Vintage Crime to release new editions of the third and fourth books in the series, "The Man On the Balcony" and "The Laughing Policeman" (which I am anxious to reread), in February of 2009.

congratulations on stumbling onto one of the best crime/satire series of the 20th century. If you didn't like this one, read some others, especially The Locked Room. Great writing with a moderate slant (they slam liberals and conservatives) makes this a wonderful series.

This is the second book in the Martin Beck series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. It's something of an oddity in that much of the book takes place in Budapest, rather than in Sweden where the rest of the series is set.

Stockholm homicide detective Martin Beck is looking forward to beginning his long-awaited vacation, but only hours into it he's called back to investigate the disappearance of a Swedish journalist. Beck reluctantly agrees to take up the search which leads him to Budapest and finds him entangled with an international group of bad guys, one of whom is a nymphomaniac who sets her sights on Beck.

This is a good read and Beck is a great protagonist. An excellent example of the police procedural.

It is a hot August, and Inspector Martin Beck of the Stockholm Homicide Squad badly needs a vacation. He is scheduled to leave his depressing criminals and corpses behind while he takes a trip to a rented cottage on an island with his wife and two children. When he joins his family, Beck takes a swim, goes rowing, and begins to relax. No sooner does start to unwind than he is summoned by his supervisor to investigate a new case. His mission is to find a Swedish journalist named Alf Mattson, who has been missing for ten days. Mattson was last seen in Hungary, and Beck is sent to Budapest to hunt for him. The reason that the reporter's disappearance raises red flags is that he made a suspiciously large number of trips to Eastern Europe. Is Mattson in hiding, did he commit suicide, was he abducted and/or murdered, or is there some other explanation for his disappearance? Although Mattson was known to be mean and unpleasant when he drank too much, he generally kept in touch with his employer and took pride in meeting his deadlines.

Unfortunately, "The Man Who Went Up in Smoke" is not one of Sjowall's and Wahloo's more engrossing efforts. We never get to know Alf Mattson very well and the little we discover does not make us terribly interested in his fate. Beck interviews Alf's estranged wife, friends, acquaintances, and anyone else who came into contact with him, and initially, he comes up empty. Beck's colleague, Kollberg, calls Mattson, "a singularly uninteresting person." It is only when Beck and his fellow detectives dig a bit further that they discover some unpleasant truths about the missing man. Since Inspector Beck works alone during much of the story, there is little of the camaraderie among the cops that distinguishes Sjowall and Wahloo's livelier books. In addition, the authors' trademark suspense and quirky humor are not much in evidence. The conclusion falls flat, since the outcome of the mystery turns out to be somewhat dull and anticlimactic. Unless you are a huge fan of this series, you might want to skip this one.

I thought I already did a review for this book. It came at a timely manner, and was in very good shape!

The Man Who Went Up in Smoke, Per Wahlöö

Chapter 1 tells about the murder of a room-mate in a poverty-stricken room. [Cabin fever?] Martin Beck goes to join his family on his summer vacation, but a telephone recalls him to work (Chapter 2). The Foreign Office wants him to investigate the disappearance of Alf Matsson, the journalist. He was sent to Budapest on a story, then disappeared. A magazine article could have unwanted political repercussions (Chapter 3). Matsson had been investigated by the Counter-Espionage section for his many trips. He was an expert on East European affairs, mostly sports and entertainment (Chapter 4). Beck interviews Matsson's wife (Chapter 5), then a friend of Alf (Chapter 6). Beck flies to Budapest via Berlin and Prague (Chapter 7). Beck stays at the same room in the hotel (Chapter 8). Then he visited the first hotel where Alf stayed (Chapter 9).

Beck got a name for Kollberg (Chapter 10). He connected it to an address (Chapter 11). It drew a blank. A detective talks to him (Chapter 12). Beck visits the mineral baths (Chapter 13). He then spent time with that girl (Chapter 14). Still no clues (Chapter 15). There is action in the attack on Martin Beck in the dark (Chapter 16). Martin's remark about being followed tipped off the Budapest police (Chapter 17). There is a break in the case. Theodor Fröbe talks (Chapter 18). It was easy to smuggle these goods out of the Eastern Bloc (Chapter 19). Beck questions Radeburger and learns the details of their business (Chapter 20). Matsson is still missing (Chapter 21). Beck returns to Sweden (Chapter 22). [Is there a clue here?] There was an earlier police report on Matsson (Chapter 23). Beck investigates this complaint (Chapter 24).

They learn about Matsson's friends (Chapter 25). Did any foreigner lose a passport in Budapest around the time of Matsson's disappearance (Chapter 26)? They investigate Matsson's drinking buddies (Chapter 27). A telephone call from Budapest answers Beck's question. Beck now has a definite suspect (Chapter 28). After a while the suspect talks about the crime (Chapter 29). Finding the body corroborates the confession. Now Beck can return to his family on vacation (Chapter 30).

There are plenty of true crime stories about mistaken identification. Most people are described by their clothes. So two similar sized men would look alike if they wore the same clothes. The story in Chapter 1 is a clue to this mystery, but its not obvious at the time. [In Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" the detective changes his whole outfit every day to avoid identification.]